Not Exactly as Planned by Mel Rosenberg - מל רוזנברג - Ourboox.com
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Not Exactly as Planned

After fruitful careers as a scientist and inventor I've gone back to what I love most - writing children's books Read More
  • Joined Oct 2013
  • Published Books 1550

In his book about the future (Future Shock), Alvin Toffler talked about the future need for people to change professions every ten years of so.

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I remember the effect the book had on me back then. It seems that my life has followed a similar pattern.

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In my teens it was a very good decade. I wanted to be an astronomer and scientist. I had a book about Mars, a chemistry set and a real dinosaur bone.

 

Photo: With my sister Rena

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Not Exactly as Planned by Mel Rosenberg - מל רוזנברג - Ourboox.com

But I ended up becoming an expert on bad breath and body odors.  I smelled about 10,000 mouths, armpits and shoes. Not exactly as planned.

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Not Exactly as Planned by Mel Rosenberg - מל רוזנברג - Ourboox.com

In my twenties, it was a very good decade, I wanted to be a famous musician. I played piano and wrote funny songs combining English and Hebrew. Much later, I became a sax player and singer, and helped kickstart the career of some remarkable singers. I produced two CDs. I did a few local festivals. But never made it big.

 

Photo: With Marina, at the very beginning of her stellar career.

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Not Exactly as Planned by Mel Rosenberg - מל רוזנברג - Ourboox.com

In my thirtees, it was a very good decade. I wanted to be a scientist and successful inventor. One of my first inventions was a pen for people with no thumbs. It wasn’t a big hit. Other subsequent inventions were actually manufactured, including the Quadloop (together with Prof. Ervin Weiss). It retailed for 2 cents, and 2 percent of 2 cents ain’t much in the way of royalties. Not exactly as planned.

 

 

 

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Not Exactly as Planned by Mel Rosenberg - מל רוזנברג - Ourboox.com

I invented the Diaslide. But I wasn’t careful when writing the patent, and another scientist took the basic idea, circumvented the patent, and created a cheaper product. Not exactly as planned.

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Not Exactly as Planned by Mel Rosenberg - מל רוזנברג - Ourboox.com

Together with Dr. Nir Sterer, we developed a ‘litmus paper’ test for bad breath. Everyone was interested. Everyone, until they learned that the molecule that changes color is just a bit carcinogenic.

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Not Exactly as Planned by Mel Rosenberg - מל רוזנברג - Ourboox.com

I invented a word game even better than Scrabble (below). It’s called Qfor2. My kids played it frequently so I thought it was great and invested money in it. Turns out they were just humoring me. Cost them part of their inheritance.

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Not Exactly as Planned by Mel Rosenberg - מל רוזנברג - Ourboox.com

Actually, the only time I really did succeed was when we invented a two-phase mouthwash for fighting bad breath. It became big in the UK and elsewhere. People tell me that Colgate is now manufacturing it in the US.

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When I was in my forties, it was a very good decade. I started publishing my children’s stories. The first was, Bacteria Galore by Sunday at four. Since then, there have been many more.

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When I was in my fifties, it was a very good decade. I wanted to change education, to make it more exciting, relevant, inspirational, multidisciplinary. Dr. Alon Amit and Hagai Cohen were my partners in crime.

I’m taking a break, but open to offers.

 

 

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In my fifties, Yossi Vardi started inviting us to wonderful, wacky un-conferences , I persuaded Hagai Cohen to build me a device that allows anyone to ‘water ski on land’. We called it the ‘redseamobile’. We test drove it a few times. On our first attempt,  it end up crashing into a dumpster, with a policeman standing right nearby.

The redseamobile became the ‘deadseamobile’. Not exactly as planned.

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When I was in my sixties, it was a very good decade. I wanted to have an internet self-publishing venture. Together with Ran Shternin we started Ourboox.com. We have over 260,000 books created by youngsters and adults all over the world. No business model yet. Does it matter?

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I turned seventy recently and hope if will be a good decade. I am focusing on my children’s writing, and have a traditionally-published children’s book coming out (in Hebrew) next month. Some things take more than ten years.

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Here’s one of my early songs from way back then (scroll down for the whole miserable text)

Nehama Yisraeli 

The first time I met you was on   דיזנגוף,

Just one look at you, I knew that you were heavy stuff,

But when I smiled and asked   היכן את גרה חמדתי ,

You smiled at me and said  עם משפחתי

So come on, Nehama Yisraeli,

Leave your mother  ובואי איתי,

Come on, I really love you baby,

Leave your little momma ובואי הביתה איתי

The next time I see you on Arlozoroff,

I’m gonna tell you  שנשבר לי  I’ve had more than enough,

Nehama don’t expect me to be a saint,

Because I’ve got something that your  אמא  ain’t….

No she ain’t, I know she ain’t…

 

 

 

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